07/21/08

Today's conversation was a little rough. Physically for Dad and emotionally for me. I called his cell phone and he answered in a series of short breaths and grunts. Turns out he has a hard time sleeping. Sleeping on his back is impossible with tumor on his sacrum and along his spine. Sleeping on his stomach is impossible because of the tumor on his chest and the tumor in his ribs. He can sleep on one side. But he is exhausted and moves in his sleep. And he slept on his bad side for part of the night.

The result? Intense pain when he gets up to face his day. Intense pain that makes it hard to take deep breaths. He was at Jeremy's house, trying to carry on a conversation with me and give candy to Jeremy's girls. He told me he thought he would be okay this morning but it was getting worse as the day went on. He came down to have lunch in Provo and true to his optimistic self, he thought the pain would get better. It didn't. He said it felt like "someone broke all of his ribs." And since Tim was the only other person in the house, I feel like we can blame him for Dad's rib pain. (Just kidding Tim - we are glad you are there!)

At this point, we cut the conversation short because it sounded painful for him to talk and he seemed to feel OBLIGATED to carry on a conversation with me! I also managed to get off the phone before Dad told a joke - who knows what kind of damage that would cause?

As an update - Dad is scheduled for a biopsy tomorrow - we will be one step closer to knowing what we are dealing with. Hopefully we can know by the end of the week.